Pat on the Back Awards January 2005

Congratulations to —

Scott Atwell, Librarian. "Our office recently needed to obtain a copy of a video tape for training purposes and we thought we could check it out from the library (we don't do this kind of thing very often and we were unsure of the procedure). Scott spent 20 minutes with us searching through the library records to try to find the video. When he could not find it he did not send us away, he went a step further and made a call to Media Distribution (it never occurred to us that there was more than one place to get that tape on campus!) and helped us to obtain the tape. He was patient, kind and genuinely helpful and we want to make sure he is recognized for going above and beyond the call of duty. Thank you Scott!"

Susan McNamara, Writing Center, for the excellent tutoring she does with students. "Susan invests her full self in helping others - even to the point of going outside her job duties to help students learn and succeed. While all the tutors in the Writing Center and Academic Skills Center deserve a pat on the back for their dedication to helping others, Susan deserves an extra measure of thanks this semester for her hard work."

Randy Shanks and Jennifer Thede, SATS, for their work on "making sure the FSU Traverse City office was up and ready for registration when they came back from the holiday break. Northwestern MI College had made a change in their computer system which would not allow Ferris to use their network for printing. Between the hard work from Jennifer to get a printer to Traverse City in a very short time frame and Randy's ability to get everything set up with NMC and making a trip there to set up the new printer, they were able to limit the downtime in the Traverse City office to an hour."

Phil Balliet, Custodian, Granger Center. "The reason why is kind of funny and serious at the same time. Last Thursday night at Granger Center I had to use the restroom and during the flush my keys fell in the toilet. I called Campus Police and dispatch called a plumber. Phil called my cell and told me not to let anyone else go in there and flush any toilets just in case they were still in the line. He used the snake but that didn't retrieve them so then he removed the toilet from the wall and reached in the line in the wall to see if he could grab them. I was lucky because I was on the end of the line and if the toilets had been flushed one more time my keys would have been gone forever. Phil managed to retrieve my keys thank goodness and he is my hero."

Diane Griffin and Donna Smith. "Diane is an SLA Facilitator and noticed in week 15 that one of the students who attends her SLA workshop didn't appear to be feeling well. Diane approached the student and was told by the student that she was in renal failure. The student told Diane that she didn't want to go home (many hours away) to begin the lengthy treatment because she wanted to finish the semester. Diane was concerned for the student and the student's attitude to remain here instead of getting treatment. We contacted Donna Smith (the student's advisor) to alert her of the student's health and to see what we could do for her. Donna has contacted many people to help this student physically and academically. Michael Carines, Paul Sullivan, and Rick Kowalkoski were also involved in helping her."

"This student was going to remain here until Monday of finals week, but unfortunately she is not doing well and has left campus. People are working on getting her "incompletes" in her classes. I wonder if this student may have gone undiscovered until the problem was much bigger if it were not for Diane. I also am so grateful that Donna contacted the right people so quickly. We still don't know if this student is going to be "ok" or not, but If it were not for Donna and Diane (and others), I hate to think what the possible outcome may be. It's wonderful to work at a university with such caring people."

Danette Boyd, Dental Hygiene, for "taking over many of my work responsibilities while I was out on medical leave for 6 weeks this semester. I know this added responsibility has caused her a bit of stress as she has had to maintain her own work schedule."